Composite materials are increasingly being used for the manufacture of a variety of products and as building materials due to their high strength and durability and the ability to easily manufacture and machine such composites into a variety of shapes and designs. Carbon-based composites such as carbon fiber composites especially are becoming increasingly popular for use in numerous industrial applications for their high strength and stability. For example, carbon fiber composites are now being used in a variety of products such as the wings and bodies of high technology jet fighter airplanes, automobile dashboards, and smaller articles such as billiard cues.
In current industrial processes, carbon fiber composites typically are formed by winding a series of fibers about a mandrel as a resin material is applied, or by mixing the fibers and resin in a mold. The resultant sample or weave of carbon fibers is then compressed under extremely high pressures and temperatures to press the carbon fiber and resin weave or sample into a substantially solid block, and to cause the resin to cure and harden to form a substantially solid carbon fiber composite. It is critical in such industrial processes that the resultant composite materials being formed be uniform in cross-section such that the carbon fibers are required to be wound or formed with a-prescribed pattern or grain in order to preserve the strength and structural integrity of the resultant composites. Uniformity, and thus strict adherence to a prescribed pattern, is especially critical for materials used in such applications as airplane wings.
Accordingly, a high degree of precision in the winding of the carbon fibers in a specific pattern without deviation is necessary to insure the uniformity of the composite material required by conventional industrial processes. Such uniformity and adherence to a prescribed pattern results in the composites formed thereby having a substantially uniform, precise patterned appearance. Thus, such carbon fiber composites primarily are used for larger products where structural integrity is of primary concern rather than forming articles having a highly unique, decorative appearance. In addition, the pressures exerted during compression of the carbon fiber and resin sample or weave in most conventional processes generally are extremely high. Even with such high pressures and temperatures, and long cure times, most industrial processes for forming carbon fiber composites typically have as much as 50% waste or unusable material due to the failure to exhaust all air from within the carbon fiber weave, and/or to thoroughly wet the fibers.
Attempts also have been made to use a vacuum within an autoclave or pressure chamber to draw out air from within the carbon fiber weave before compressing the wo und, resin-covered fiber weave. An additional process is believed to be disclosed in the pending U.S patent application of Harold Hale, application Ser. No. 08/786,784, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Manufacture of Minimum Velocity, Wrike Free Composite Parts", which is believed to disclose the use of manufacturing composite parts in which the composite materials are encased in a vacuum bag placed in a vacuum chamber, and then a vacuum drawn on both the bag and the chamber to first draw out air from within the carbon materials and thereafter to apply pressure to the materials. While such a process appears to provide for higher quality composite products, there is still significant waste that occurs, although not on the same order as current conventional manufacturing processes. In addition, this vacuum bag method frither requires great care and precision in bagging and sealing the carbon fiber and resin weave or sample within the bag and placing the bag within the vacuum chamber, as, if the bag is not sealed or is punctured or has any defects at all, the sample will be ruined and must be discarded.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a system and method of forming composite materials, such as carbon fiber composites, that enables a carbon fiber composite to be formed efficiently and relatively inexpensively, with the amount of waste being significantly reduced, and which firther provides the resultant carbon fiber composite with an enhanced, unique, non-uniforn, highly decorative appearance.